diff --git a/csst_common/pipeline.py b/csst_common/pipeline.py
index 77b8bdac6af883047137554194c00caf442a7fd0..ee9cdc95e22a5bcb19889ea81c8c459cf13c43aa 100644
--- a/csst_common/pipeline.py
+++ b/csst_common/pipeline.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ Modified-History:
     2023-12-10, Bo Zhang, update Pipeline
     2023-12-15, Bo Zhang, add module header
 """
+
 import json
 import subprocess
 import os
@@ -29,6 +30,16 @@ from .logger import get_logger
 from .status import CsstStatus, CsstResult
 
 
+def print_directory_tree(directory="."):
+    for root, dirs, files in os.walk(directory):
+        level = root.replace(directory, "").count(os.sep)
+        indent = " " * 4 * (level)
+        print(f"{indent}{os.path.basename(root)}/")
+        subindent = " " * 4 * (level + 1)
+        for file in files:
+            print(f"{subindent}{file}")
+
+
 class Pipeline:
     """
     CSST pipeline configuration class.
@@ -166,9 +177,13 @@ class Pipeline:
     def clean_directory(d):
         """Clean a directory."""
         print(f"Clean output directory '{d}'...")
-        r = subprocess.run(f"rm -rf {d}/*", shell=True, capture_output=True)
-        print("> ", r)
-        r.check_returncode()
+        try:
+            r = subprocess.run(f"rm -rf {d}/*", shell=True, capture_output=True)
+            print("> ", r)
+            r.check_returncode()
+        except:
+            print("Failed to clean output directory!")
+            print_directory_tree(d)
 
     def now(self):
         """Return ISOT format datetime using `astropy`."""